A Warrior in Need
by Kitten With A Tie
Summary: Lionblaze has taken a mate and moved on, but Heathertail, sadly, hasn't. She struggles to move on. With Breezepelt constantly on her case, and her seeing a ThunderClan warrior, Heathertail feels as if she needs Lionblaze more then ever. Meanwhile, Icecloud questions her mate's loyalty to her... discontinued.
1. Chapter 1: Hunting Tales

A Warrior in Need

_Heathertail's POV_

_I hadn't seen Lionblaze_ in three moons. I missed him terribly. Every single golden cat I saw, it reminded me of him and I had to run to the bushes to hide my tears. But we could never be together. We had broken up as apprentices, and then we started seeing each other again when we became warriors. Eventually Hollyleaf found out _and_ forced us to stop, since she would tell all the Clans. I held back a lake of tears. I wanted to see him again. I wanted to see his soft, golden fur again. To get one more glance of his amber eyes…

"Heathertail!" I snapped out of my fantasies. Breezepelt was glaring at me. "Are you going to daydream all day or are you going to hunt?"  
"Sorry, Breezepelt." I quickly trotted past him and sniffed the air. Rabbit.

I could see its fluffy white tail. I stalked forward five paw steps than pounced. "Good job." Owlpelt congratulated me. My chest puffed out and I flicked my tail affectionately at the brown tabby tom. All thoughts about Lionblaze were gone. Maybe Owlpelt and I could work out…?

"Yeah, good job Heathertail!" Breezepelt meowed with a challenging look at Owlpelt. Owlpelt shrugged and flicked his tail for us to continue our hunt. I held the rabbit in my jaws and my head drooped as we padded on. We had stopped at the top of a hill and we had a nice view of our territory. "Here, let me help you." Owlpelt took the rabbit from my jaws, and our noses brushed. I immediately blushed, and he blinked his bright blue eyes. "S-sorry…" he apologized. "Hey, look down there!" Breezepelt meowed loudly. I looked and saw the ThunderClan border. "So?"  
"We can watch and make sure ThunderClan doesn't cross our borders."  
"That's quite thoughtful of you," Owlpelt meowed.

"But wouldn't that be kind of weird?" I mewed. "It's like we're spying on them… ThunderClan knows better than to cross our borders." I added quickly. Everybody was giving me awkward looks.

"She's right," Whitewhisker meowed. "We should at least wait for one of them to 'accidently' cross our border before spying on them."

I nodded briskly. We continued our hunt, and Breezepelt caught a rabbit, and Owlpelt caught a water vole. "Nice catch," I called. Owlpelt smiled at me, and my fur felt all warm and itchy.

"I'm going to go hunt near the ThunderClan border," I meowed. I needed to get away from everybody.

"I'll go with you." Breezepelt meowed quickly before Owlpelt could say anything.

"No, it's fine." I raced off before anybody could say anything else.

When I reached the border, the long grass near the border tickled my belly. I stared longingly at the border. I wanted to cross it. I wanted to see him. I wanted to stare into his amber eyes.

I picked up a paw to step over the border, but something stopped me. Instead I sat down and looked intensely across the border.

The bushes rustled, and hope pounded in my ears. I picked my tail up and it began to flick back and forth.

My body went limp as I saw a dark brown tom emerge from the brush. He began rolling in the grass, and I saw an intent look on his face.

I watched him curiously as he rolled around, wiggling his back against the soft grass. Eventually he paused as he saw me. I saw his face turn berry-red as he looked at me. He got to his paws and shook his fur.

"W-what are you doing here?" he called out hesitantly.

"Watching you act like a dog," I replied scornfully.

"Shut up!" he yelled, embarrassed.

"Well, what were you doing?"  
"The grass felt good between my paws, a-and I wanted to roll around…"

I giggled. "That's a pretty good reason if you ask me."

His face brightened. "What's your name?"  
"I'm Heathertail."  
"My names Mudsplash," he said.

"Your name says it all."  
He laughed. "You're funny!"  
I could tell he was one moon older than me, but he acted like a kit.

"Heathertail, what are you doing?" I spun around to see Breezepelt, his fur bristling all over and his golden eyes wide with anger and disbelief.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "You were taking a long time, and I went to look for you and found you speaking with a ThunderClan warrior!" he spat.

"Well, I'm old enough to take care of myself. You don't have to treat me like a kit!" I signaled with my tail for Mudsplash to escape. I heard him scamper away into the bushes, and Breezepelt spitting angrily.

"You know better than to talk with an enemy warrior! You could've said some information that would have made us an open target for attacking. I'm defiantly telling this unbelievable story to Onestar when we get back to camp! You're going to be in _soooo _much trouble! I bet you'll be cleaning out the dirt tunnel and the elders den for 5 moons!" he scolded.

I rolled my heather blue eyes. "Whatever! The worst thing he can do is tell me I can't go to the Gathering."  
Breezepelt grinned, and then frowned. "Let's go back to camp before oh-so-mighty Owlpelt comes looking for yo-I mean us."

I rolled my eyes again and followed him. "I've already taken your catch back to camp," he said proudly as we approached the brush. "But too bad I didn't say it was mine… The elders will be full for weeks! I bet they're still eating the rabbit."

I trotted ahead of him. "I'm going to sleep."

I walked to my nest, tired and confused. Why was that Mudsplash so nice to me? Why was Breezepelt so annoying and defensive over me? Will I ever get over Lionblaze?


	2. Chapter 2: Embarrassing Encounters

A Warrior in Need

_Lionblaze's POV_

_I watched as the squirrel chewed on a nut. _My hindquarters wriggled and I pounced. My paws hit its back and it collapsed, and then looked at me with terror in its eyes. I killed it with a swift bite to its neck. It was an impressive catch, and I didn't care who saw me. I scraped dirt over it before padding off. The wet mud and grass squelched beneath my huge paws, and I let out an annoyed groan. I'd have to spend three hours cleaning mud and grass out of my pelt! I sighed. It had rained in ThunderClan territory, but not in the others. Jayfeather had said that it was a sign that RiverClan might attack, but we all shot it down, but Firestar said that we should still look out just in case.

I found a thicker part in the forest, which had long, slippery grass and deep, sinking mud. "No prey around here." I muttered, and turned to go back. Suddenly my paws slipped out from beneath me and I fell on my rump. I let out a sharp yowl of surprise as I slipped around again, this time falling on my snout, my paws sprawled out behind me, my hind legs covered in a layer of mud as they struggled to hold me up. I heard a giggle. "Who's there?" I called, my hind paws struggling to get a grip in my deep mud. "It's me, silly!"  
My head turned to see Icecloud. "Seems like you're having a lot of fun," she purred, slipping her tail over my chin as she walked up from behind me. "You know what they say," I mewed, blushing hard. "A warrior is always a kit in some way." She giggled and helped me up. "So, what brings you to this part of the forest?" I asked, licking her ears. "Firestar sent me," she replied. "He wants to know if you'd like to go to the Gathering tomorrow." My whole pelt bristled with surprise and happiness. "Of course!" I meowed, giving her a nudge. "And you're going too, I suppose?"  
"No. I have to stay in the nursery. Daisy said to."  
I felt a little crestfallen, and then I smiled and gave her a nudge. "We're going to have beautiful kits," I meowed.

"Oh, and Cinderheart said that she wants to meet you near the Great Oak tonight." Icecloud mewed before flicking her tail against my nose and trotting into the undergrowth.

"Cinderheart?" I murmured, and then trotted to pick up my catch and head to camp.

When I reached camp, Cinderheart was grooming herself. I set down my catch then found a sunny spot and sprawled there. Icecloud padded over, lay down beside me, and began to groom herself.

Mudsplash strolled into camp, his tail high, and a squirrel in his jaws. I got up and padded over. "Why are you so happy?" I asked my tail flicking. "I just met the most beautiful cat ever!" he meowed.

"What?" With my tail, I herded him out of camp. "What's the biggie?" he mewed and began to wash himself. "The 'biggie' is that you're breaking the warrior code. What's this cat's name?"  
"Heathertail."  
My heart stopped. "Heathertail?" I repeated. "Heathertail."  
"Heathertail?"  
"Heathertail."  
"Heathertail?"

"Heathertail."  
"Heathertail?"  
"Heathertail."  
"Heathertail?"  
"Heathertail!"  
"Heathertail?"  
"Great StarClan, yes!" he shouted. "So, you're meeting her here tonight?" I gave him a few pokes with my tail, winking at him. "Uh, I didn't ask her…"  
"You should've."  
"Yeah, I should! Then if we meet a few more times, I could ask her if she's looking for a mate…"  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" My tail bristled. "You can't do that."  
"Why?" One of his eyebrows rose, then a goofy and teasing grin broke out over his face. "Jealous?"  
"No!" I shouted, blushing. "You just can't because you'll break the warrior code."  
"So?" Mudsplash mewed. "So? You're the son of the deputy!"  
It was true. Leafpool and Brambleclaw became mates and had Mudsplash. "Brambleclaw doesn't have to know." He replied, his tail lashing back and forth. "You just can't go behind Brambleclaw's back and do this. You're his only son."  
That made Mudsplash stop. He looked thoughtful.

"Well, if I don't want to be deputy, than I don't want to be! Brambleclaw can shove his nose in the air all he wants and want me to be deputy so I can 'lead the Clan' and all that fancy mouse-dung, but I don't want to! And if I want to be mates with Heathertail, then I'll ask her!" With that, he spun around into the undergrowth, heading for the WindClan territory.

I couldn't let him become mates with Heathertail. But what could I do? He would think I'm jealous, and he'd get mad at me if I told him that I used to meet with her. Wait… why was I acting like this? Remember, Lionblaze, I thought. You hate her. She told her Clan about the tunnels.

But I shook my head, my ears flapping. I tried to shake the thoughts about Heathertail and Icecloud away, but they stuck to my brain like mud.

I loved Icecloud with all my heart, and I did still have feelings for Heathertail… Little, mouse-sized feelings for her.

Friend feelings, not mate-mate feelings. But if I did like Heathertail, and if I did want to be mates with her, what would I do? Break Icecloud's heart and the warrior code?

No. I was a loyal ThunderClan warrior, and I was not about to change that, even if the Prophecy did. I turned around, heading back to camp. "If Mudsplash wants to break the warrior code and Brambleclaw's wish, then he can!" I meowed aloud. "I won't care."

A cat loomed in the shadows. It had watched everything. It had been watching Mudsplash and me. I spun around, and I could've sworn to StarClan I saw a black tail flick into the shadows.

Was I going insane?  
No, I decided. I'm seeing things. With that, I disappeared into camp. The cat's head appeared, and its lips formed into a beast-like smile. "Yes, Lionblaze," it hissed. "Feed me all your information. Let Mudsplash break the warrior code. Let the Clans know your dirty secret you're hiding…"


End file.
